Friday, March 12, 2010

Review: Inky Glass - Miss Fit

Inky Glass - Miss Fit2009, Inky Glass

New York City singer/songwriter Inky Glass, aka Heidi Kolman, is something of a throwback to the 1960's folk scene. Rough, unvarnished poetry delivered over droning acoustic guitar is Inky Glass' schtick, telling stories riddled with a history of ostracization, drug use, alcohol, mental health issues and deep-seated resiliency that ties them all together and keeps them going. Inky Glass' first full-length album, Miss Fit, is a great leap forward sonically from her debut EP, Serendipity Rose. Where Rose was recorded live in a coffee house, Miss Fit used professional recording techniques. The material is still rough cut, just Kolman and guitar.

Miss Fit opens with "Smokin Yesterday's Cigarettes", a dark paean to a friend who's passed on. The shared life reflected in the song is a hard one, and Inky Glass sings like a 1960's coffee house singer. Hers is not a pretty voice, but one roughened and tanned by years of hard living and harder experience. Individual notes become secondary considerations to cadence and tone. "Tangled In Your Web" speaks to dysfunction of the sort that occurs when relationships become mired in drugs. Glass' stark, simple explanations provide a more artistic view than the most high-brow poetry. "Harlem In The 80's" gives credence to the idea that people's situations are much of their own choosing no matter how undesirable. Glass talks about living in Harlem and wanting to leave but not being able to because a part of has placed the ability to do so too high to reach.

"Miss Fit" details a state of mind where up is down, left is right, and the social rules that most people understand simply don't apply. "Cortar De La Venas" is a dark rant on suicide from a soul intent on the subject. The song may be disturbing for some if for no other reason than the blunt desire to do something many in society consider to be reprehensible or at the very least unfortunate. In "Flowers", Inky Glass offers up an equally unvarnished view of domestic violence and the patterns that allow it to continue. Glass explores the mindset of the abused in stark terms, perhaps not justifying why she stays but making it more understandable. "Roses" is a song full of innuendo that won't be recognizable, but the sound effects Glass provides will leave little doubt about the intent of the song. Glass closes with a reprise of "Harlem In The '80's".

Whether from a character or real life, Inky Glass writes from a perspective not entirely dissimilar from Wesley Willis or Steve "The Gangsta Rabbi" Lieberman. Miss Fit represents the mostly lucid triangulations of a mind that's traveled life's emotional rough waters. As such, Miss Fit is going to appeal to a narrow demographic; some of whom will truly appreciate and get Inky Glass and some who will see her as an oddity or novelty. Miss Fit is all Glass, just her and guitar. The sound is professionally done lo-fi, and the arrangements are overly simplistic. You'll like it or hate it; there's no in between.